IBM, Microsoft, BEA Systems and TIBCO Software today agreed to submit the latest version of their co-authored Web Services ReliableMessaging (WS-RM) specification, to the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS) for further refinement and finalisation as a web services standard.

The reliable messaging standard is designed to verify that message exchange has been completed correctly with no messages lost or duplicated. For example, within an order processing system, it is critical for the application to know that all items have been received and none have been duplicated. If a client using this application temporarily loses network connectivity during the course of order submission, the reliable messaging standard aims to ensure that the order is received once and only once.

In addition to the OASIS submission, the co-author companies suggested the need for a technical committee and charter to enable further review and industry collaboration on the proposed standard.

Karla Norsworthy, vice president of software standards at IBM, said: "With this technology, delivery of messages between partners, suppliers and customers can be assured in an efficient and scalable way that will support both enterprise-level applications utilising middleware and simpler point-to-point applications."

"The submission of WS-RM to OASIS is an important step toward achieving a cohesive and composable architecture for secure, reliable, transacted web services," added Ari Bixhorn, director of Web Services Strategy for Microsoft.

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